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Hmm. Well. Alot of programs will actually take you; some have a "16 years to 18 years old" policy, so if you are 15, you might be out of luck. Have you checked the precolleges of the aicad schools, I definitely think there are some that are accepting rising juniors? I'm doing RISD precollege this summer, and they are definitely accepting rising juniors. It's a little on the pricey side, though, and I think scholarship deadlines have passed. Have you looked at near by community colleges or art school near your home?

I believe the deadline for this year was at the end of February, but I would HIGHLY recommend CSSSA. While it is mostly a California based program, they do accept around 20 students from outside of California (I am not a CA resident, but I got in this way). Ask anyone who attended their animation program and they will tell you how AMAZING it is. You have a lot of the same instructors that the kids at CalArts have... The class schedules are usually a half day of life drawing (I had never done life drawing before I went… but am in love with it now) then an hour-long animation screening after lunch and then animation class. The program also takes you on field trips for observational studies and you get to take some acting and film study classes (which is an amazing experience).
If you are interested in fine arts too, you are permitted to attend the fine art (or dance sessions or additional life-drawing classes) lectures they have, as long as it doesn’t interfere with your class schedule.
I could go on about CSSSA for pages… if you have any questions, feel free to post them. It was the best move I’ve ever made and the best experience that I have ever had. I am going to attend the Character Animation program at CalArts (or the Animation program at USC). I would have never known what to go for to get into a good college animation program without CSSSA.

I believe the deadline for this year was at the end of February, but I would HIGHLY recommend CSSSA. While it is mostly a California based program, they do accept around 20 students from outside of California (I am not a CA resident, but I got in this way). Ask anyone who attended their animation program and they will tell you how AMAZING it is. You have a lot of the same instructors that the kids at CalArts have... The class schedules are usually a half day of life drawing (I had never done life drawing before I went… but am in love with it now) then an hour-long animation screening after lunch and then animation class. The program also takes you on field trips for observational studies and you get to take some acting and film study classes (which is an amazing experience).
If you are interested in fine arts too, you are permitted to attend the fine art (or dance sessions or additional life-drawing classes) lectures they have, as long as it doesn’t interfere with your class schedule.
I could go on about CSSSA for pages… if you have any questions, feel free to post them. It was the best move I’ve ever made and the best experience that I have ever had. I am going to attend the Character Animation program at CalArts (or the Animation program at USC). I would have never known what to go for to get into a good college animation program without CSSSA.

CSSSA does look amazing and I ended up finding it a bit too late. Next year I definitely plan on applying. Thanks for sharing your experiences there.

Max the Mutt Animation School in Toronto has a "Learn to Draw" summer intensive that offers life drawing every morning, and two week of perspective and structural drawing and two weeks of principles of drawing in the afternoons. Courses are taught by top professionals. Check the website, www.maxthemutt.com. (Dorm housing including breakfast and dinner, or housing with a family are both available.)

I've heard really great things about CSSSA. I know of a friend who went there for their animation. Definetly one of the better summer programs.

I went to Ringling's precollege and my roomates sister did the precollege at RISD and loved it and said it was set up much like a college enviroment then a high school day care program --which is how I would describes Ringling's precollege program. I didn't find RSAD precollege that great. But they changed a lot of things about it in the last few years so it's less "day care-ish" from what I am told.

When I say day care-ish, when I went back in 2004, they made us go to the beach and other vaction spots and wouldn't let us stay on the campus to work in the studios. And they just kind of babied us around and told us what time we had to go bed-- if they caught us awake past 11pm, we could get 3 strikes we got kicked out of the program. -__-

It's a lot of fun and a lot of WORK. Actually... it's more work than fun. When I went we did a lot of things like water park trips, beach trips and other things Kendra was talking about in the above post. People complained about not being able to get their work done so they don't do that stuff as much anymore at PreCollege.

If you want to get into animation you should apply early as the CA workshop for Ringling PreCollege fills early. You can also take a workshop in painting or whichever finearts base foundation of your choice. You will pick two workshop classes... and then will take the foundation classes (color theory, 3d design, figure, ect) like everyone else.

Ringling's precollege program definitely sounds better than CCAD's precollege was. The CCAD program wasn't awful--I definitley learned a lot those three weeks, but that might also be due to the fact that my high school program is really weak.

At CCAD, you pick one focus (I believe the choices were animation, drawing, photography, and print-making). We had a foundation class in the morning, figure drawing a couple of times a week, and a couple of lectures throughout the week. The third week was optional and entirely portfolio prep. We picked a different focus that week (Oil painting, "Solutions for big ideas", and drawing again). It was definitley helpful, but I didn't feel like I came away with as strong a body of work that I could have by going to another program.

I got accepted to the RSAD precollege perspective for this summer. Im planning on taking the computer animation and illustration workshops. Ive heard alot of good things about it, it seems like a really solid program. Im pumped for it!